phrase requests - "He had snaggle teeth" — how to say correctly?



Is it okay to say "He had snaggle teeth"? Or there is a better way of describing that problem with teeth?



Answer



You say that he had a snaggle-tooth, or that he had snaggle-teeth, or that he was snaggle-toothed, or that he was a snaggle-tooth. See the examples below transcribed from the Oxford English Dictionary.


I suppose you could say he was in need of dental orthodontic work if you didn’t want to spell out that his teeth were uneven and snaggly.


snaggle



snaggle /ˈsnæg(ə)l/, sb. Chiefly dial. and colloq.
Etymology: app. f. snag sb.1: cf. snaggle-tooth.




  1. A snaggle-tooth; one who has snaggle-teeth. rare.



    • 1823 M. Wilmot Let. 1 Oct. (1935) 197 ― Blanche [has] become alas a snaggle! Those dear little pearls of teeth are going. *1880 Courtney & Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 52/2 ― What snaggles the cheeld has.




  2. A tangle; a knotted or projecting mass.



    • 1904 Eng. Dial. Dict. V. 567/1 ― Snaggle,··a knotted, entangled condition.

    • 1968 C. Helmericks Down Wild River North ii. xxii. 336 ― The girls pitched our * tent in the sparse, pristine plant population between rock snaggles.

    • 1978 T. Hughes in Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Apr. 409/1 ― All eyes watch The weathered, rooty, bushy pile of faces, A snaggle of faces.




  3. attrib., as snaggle-tusk.





snaggle-tooth



ˈsnaggle-tooth.
Etymology: Cf. next and snag-tooth.


An irregular or projecting tooth. Also, one with snaggle-teeth.



  • 1820 M. Wilmot Let. 12 Jan. (1935) 51 ― Catherine has actually lost one of her teeth!·· The poor Cat will be a rare frightful snaggle tooth.

  • 1821 M. Wilmot Let. 17 Mar. 99 ― Instead of being hideous in the snaggle tooth age··she is··improved.

  • 1825 Jennings Obs. Dial. W. Eng. 71 ― Snaggle-tooth, a tooth growing irregularly.

  • 1859 Slang Dict. 96 ― Snaggle teeth, uneven, and unpleasant looking dental operators.

  • 1897 S. Watson Life’s Look-out 67 ― Every building had its own lurch inwards or outwards, like a mouthful of snaggle teeth.

  • 1906 Dialect Notes III. 157 ― You’ll be a snaggle-tooth before you’re twenty, if you don’t quit eating so much candy.

  • 1909 J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 227/2 ― Snaggle-tooth, woman of lower order··who, lifting her upper lip when scolding, shows an irregular row of teeth.



snaggle-toothed



ˈsnaggle-toothed, a.
Etymology: app. f. snag sb.1


Having snaggle-teeth. Also fig.



  • 1585 Higins tr. Junius’ Nomencl. 452/1 s.v. Dento.

  • 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 427/1 ― Snaggle, or Rake toothed, is when the teeth * stands at a distance, one from the other.

  • 1884 J. C. Harris Nts. Uncle Remus 105 ― I’m snaggle‐toofed an’ double j’inted.

  • 1945 B. Macdonald Egg & I (1946) 85 ― On grey winter days its snaggle-toothed horizon could be seen plainly.

  • 1954 Caribbean Quarterly III. iv. 231 ― Albert is a bright‐eyed, snaggle-toothed little man.

  • 1971 B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 32 ― That snaggle-toothed chap in the comic button-up white suit,··-put him in a proper pinstripe and he’d pass for an Eastbourne estate agent!

  • 1977 Time 14 Feb. 21/3 ― Entertainment is provided by··a Hollywood drop-cloth view of snaggle-toothed Mount Kenya.

  • 1922 Joyce Ulysses 424 ― The famished snaggletusks of an elderly bawd protrude from a doorway.



snag-tooth



snag-tooth.
Etymology: f. snag sb.1 Cf. snaggle-tooth.


A snag-like tooth.



  • 1655 Cotgrave Wits Interpr. (1662) 253 ― How thy snag‐teeth stand orderly, Like stakes which strut by th’ water side.

  • 1727 in Bailey (vol. II.).

  • 1890 Amer. Anthropologist Oct. 316 ― Projecting canines or ‘snag teeth’ are so common in low faces as to be universally remarked.



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